New York based and originally from Papua New Guinea,Eleanor O'Connell has been working within the Theatre, Performance Art, Film, Fashion and Design industry as a Costumier, Costume Designer, Wardrobe Manager, Milliner and Artist from London to Melbourne and now New York. Listen to her journey here!

Samuel Lang Budin is a social documentary photographer living in Brooklyn and working primarily in the depressive realist mode. He makes 35mm and medium format slide shows about climate change anxiety, aging and death, naked people in their own homes, the personal discomforts of travel, and the encroaching sea. Just you wait!

In "Foraging and Picking" from PechaKucha Night BuffaloVol. 17, professor of architecture Brian Carter provides a retrospective of twenty postcards from his many travels, highlighting what each image signifies in the mind of an architect. Carter reminds us that architecture can be an international language. It prompts travel, causing us walk into buildings, to meet people, and to listen, sense and smell the places that we go.

When a psychic tells you to take a trip to Scotland do you go? Design Principal Brynne Rinderknecht did! Find out what happens in her presentation from PK NY Vol 17..

Brynne Rinderknecht of From the Inside creates residential, commercial and hospitality interiors with a focus on connecting spirits to surroundings. Originally from ST. Louis and a graduate of SAIC in Chicago, Brynne has made New York City home: collaborating with people to make functional and sustainable concepts—conscious.

Aviva Rowley and friends founded Keiki Club - an open social community for friends and flora fanatics to come together and grow plants, share knowledge, and trade collections. Attend a Keiki Club meeting in NY or California - more info here.

Aviva is a ceramicist / artist / florist from Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Cooper Union in 2011 with a BFA. She has been finding nature in Brooklyn her whole life and stubbornly refuses to leave NY - thus forcing her to create an indoor jungle.

SITEWIDE BLOG POSTS

This week goes out to the Swedes, with our City Focus shining the spotlight on Stockholm -- in part because of tomorrow's very special Vol. 38 -- and our "Presentations of the Day" for the week all coming from Swedish PKN cities. We kick things off with this classic presentation from the incredible PKN Vol. 20 celebrations that happened in Stockholm a few years ago, and it comes in the form of a Finish love for Sweden. Illka Suppanen on Backyard Babies, Swedish meatballs, and how IKEA helps you out of your crisis.

We spend billions of dollars to put robot-cameras into space -- but why?
In today's Presentation of the Day, "Why We Travel" from PKN Toronto Vol. 17, Zygmunt Strawczynski wonders why we go the places we go.
"Ziggy" loves to travel, and offers several possibilities; we want to change ourselves, we want to push our limits, we want a photo, we're curious, or perhaps -- we go purely because we can.

Want a first-class ticket to the subculture underworld of Tokyo? You’ve come to the right place.
La Carmina is a travel TV host and blog writer, who travels the world seeking out the off-beat subculture of each city she visits. In “La Carmina’s Underworld Trips and Offbeat Travels” from PKN Tokyo Vol. 115, we see Tokyo is her favorite city because she finds something for everyone — from monkey taverns to Victorian dollhouse cafes. Come check out what La Carmina has discovered within Tokyo!

“What if [climate change] is all a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?” -Joel Pett
Exhibition developer and sustainability professional Bec McMaster is fascinated by all things Antarctica. In “Antarctic Time Travel” from PKN Christchurch Vol. 20 Bec shares the process of engaging with some of New Zealand’s leading scientists in order to present past and future climate change in a balanced and empowering manner.

On June 2 for PK3, we heard fascinating presentations from dynamic local people: Geneticist Giri Athrey of Texas A&amp;M; Dan DeLeon, pastor of Friends UCC; Ronin Cooking owners Brian and Amanda Light; high school teacher and seasoned European "couch-surfer" Barbara Klein; and Shannon Van Zandt, Director of Texas A&amp;M's Center for Housing and Urban Development. Thanks for all your love and support! Please consider nominating people for PK4, in the fall. See you soon!

"There’s no better way to find adventure than to get lost!”
In "The Traveling Photographer" from PechaKucha Night Brighton Vol. 24, Darren Arthur shared his incredible stories about traveling, in and out of his professional duty. Darren is a professional photographer based in Dubai. Expect travel tips, lots of laughter and some of the best photography you are likely to see.

Interest in both travel and photography is growing across Pakistan. PechaKucha Night 'Travel Diaries' brings these two together. If you have travelled to any of Pakistan’s breathtaking deserts, mountains, valleys or beaches or explored its myriad-faced cultural heritage or archeological wonders, dig out the pictures folders from your trips and get ready to present!
The live audience are the people of Islamabad and the virtual audience will be anyone and everyone across Pakistan who visits the Kuch Khaas page or the PechaKucha Islamabad city page. Show them the beauty that Pakistan is!
Send in your ideas and a few sample images on info@kuchkhaas.org latest by 7th February 2018 for a chance to share your travel diaries with the world!

This PechaKucha Islamabad Night, fasten your seat belts for an exciting ride across the mounts and vales that make Pakistan! Our speakers know that how you travel matters as much as where you travel: Guliafshan Tariq will speak of her journey across KP on a motorbike! Moin Khan decided to hop on a bike for his adventure while Ally Sher Khan is the jeep enthusiast! Wajahat Malik and Nazia Akram will take us on a journey across several regions of Pakistan through their breathtaking photography and narratives to match! Khalid Malik will scan the golden sands near Derawar Fort, Mubeen Ali &amp; co presenter Mustafa Gauhar will take us on a walk through the palaces and forts in the same area; Faizan Ahmed will explore our better known and lesser known heritage sites. Mobeen Ansari, photographer par excellence, will focus on the diverse beauty of the land and its people. Sabeen Sadozai’s story is about how she gave back to the land through the cleanup drive at K2 Base Camp! Travel to the mountains is all about good preparation and our speaker Saad Munawar has written a book to help you do just that! Adil Riaz will take you through Pakistan's lakes and rivers with his presentation! Saad Munawar will open for us vistas of the more pristine parts of our north. We wish you a safe landing and hope you enjoy the sights and stories that we have put together for you!
For details click here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2167776626783350/

Article by Ayesha Fazlur Rahman, Programme Manager Kuch Khaas - The Centre for Arts, Culture and Dialogue
Travel for leisure is great; make a checklist, get your torch , snack bars and meds supply and off you go. But what about finding the travel companions? I learnt the perfect solution to that problem one afternoon in Boston when I wanted to attend a Rumi event at the unfamiliar MIT campus. I asked not one, not 7, but 11 of my university buddies! “Sounds great, but I am busy today” was the response , worded differently. I looked up the place on the map, got me on the bus on a cold winter evening and went alone. It worked out just fine. I also got to eat free baklava!
Since then, this has been my travel plan: I go from point A to point B, I ask several potential travel partners and if nothing works out I book a tour with a tour operator and go with a group of complete strangers! The result? I have been on several trips with several travel buddies and at times even alone.
Chitral, KP Province
I went to Chitral for the Kalash Spring Festival with Humaira whom I had met at a hike on the Margallah Hills, Islamabad. She was trigger happy when it came to taking pictures, which meant I got lots of pictures taken too! We were part of a travel group and got to chat with several of the other travellers: the American woman who wanted to interview all the locals and wouldn’t give a straight answer about her nature of work in Pakistan, the Dutchman who spoke the most formal version of Urdu ever spoken since 1947! The Pakistani lady doctor who one day, at the breakfast table, demanded to know why the Norwegian couple, married for 7 years, had not been able to produce an offspring thus far! During the jeep rides across the Rumbur and Bumburet valleys, most people, other than couples, hopped on to the jeeps close at hand instead of clinging to the friends they had come with.
(Internet image for Chitral)
Deosai National Park, Gilgit Baltistan
At an average elevation of 4114 meters , the Deosai National Park in Skardu is the second highest plateau in the world. Traveling through valleys and narrow roads, you suddenly are struck by the sheer expanse around you as you approach Deosai, literally meaning the Land of Giants. It’s a treeless plain , covered with grass and tiny pink flowers that give it a pink hue. Travel, they say, is about facing your demons and slaying them etc: for some its the fear of heights, of losing cellphone connectivity, of getting in an accident. My fear was not having hot running water: that got sorted every morning when my still half-closed eyes were greeted with a splash of water from an ice cold mountain spring, near our camping site! What better way to prepare for a 5km not-so-steep hike to search for the Holy Grail of Deosai, the brown bear. The day we embarked on our search, the wind announced our arrival to the bears who thought it best to take cover, away from our prying eyes and cameras. May be another day, another trip the winds will be on our side.
Cholistan Desert, Multan, Bahawalpur (Punjab Province)
South Punjab is also a popular tourist destination that hosts both jeep rally enthusiasts and campers in the Cholistan Desert; heritage lovers and devotees visit the beautiful shrines in Multan and Uch Sharif . To escape the relentless heat here, tours are planned in the winter months. My travel companion on this trip, Najia, took me to an unknown destination too: the childhood world of fits of uncontrollable laughter, that had somehow not been possible since school ended. The freedom that comes with anonymity made us unbelievably foolhardy as we merrily wandered to forbidden parts of the Panjnad Headworks in Bahawalpur! I made a lasting friendship with an elderly German couple; Najia offered me up for adoption to them! Mr Manfred took a prize winning photo of us at the Lal Suhanra Park in Bahawalpur, blackbucks enjoying the misty morning along with us.
Hunza and Khunjrab Pass , Gilgit Baltistan
Hunza and the Khunjrab Pass (Pak-China Border) were next on my list. This time I roped in a friend of a friend’s son, whom I had met at his wedding, to travel with me. She agreed! Michelle turned out to be someone who liked to observe people and scan their conversations for deducing their personality traits; thus there was always interesting analyses of events and interactions happening around us! So this trip we talked to people and also a lot about them! The Hunza residents are known for longevity and good health, attributed mainly to the Hunza water and diet of honey and nuts. They look lean and fit too. At an elevation of 4693 metres, the Khunjerab Pass is the highest paved international border crossing in the world.
Fairy Meadows , Gilgit Baltistan
This is a valley with a breathtaking view of Nanga Parbat The Killer Mountain. Fittingly, the 10 km road that leads from Raikot Sirai to Fairy Meadows is rated among the top 12 most dangerous roads in the world. Once there, a 6 hour mountain trek takes you to the Fairy Meadows camping site, at an altitude of 3300 metres. This trip is not for the fainthearted so I wanted to do it while I still had age on my side; no travel partner, no problem: I went alone with a bus full of strangers. Nope, didn’t make any lasting or even temporary friendships this time, the sole of my hiking boots gave way at the first step of the 6km hike. The ghoray wallah offered to trade shoes with me for the duration of the hike, at the end of which a Nepalese med student from Lahore gave me an extra pair that he had. See, it worked out just fine. We think we need friends more than we actually do. Believe me when I say the following about the view of the Nanga Parbat: It’s alive, with a personality, with changing moods; mostly unsmiling but generously giving from its treasure trove of beauty a few coins for the lonely traveller to carry home.
Sardaryab (KP Province) , Pir Chinasi (AJK)
Sometimes travel for work can turn into a bit of sight seeing too. My colleagues Fauzia, Samreen and Rahmat in Peshawar took me to Sardaryab ( the head of the river) in Charsadda. We picked chapli kebabs along the way and ordered fish there, what a treat! What a serene little spot!
After a training workshop for textbook developers in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu &amp;Kashmir (AJK), we went up a spiralling road to Pir Chinasi. At an elevation of 2900 meters, this hill top gives a pretty view of the city and surrounding rural areas.